EnergySolutions, Terrestrial sign MoU on IMSR deployment
Terrestrial Energy will work with the North American nuclear environmental remediation specialist to collaborate on the siting and deployment of Terrestrial's Integral Molten Salt Reactor plants at sites owned by EnergySolutions under a new memorandum of understanding.
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EnergySolutions CEO Kenneth Roebuck said the IMSR is uniquely positioned to meet the anticipated growth in demand for clean, firm heat and power driven by sectors such as data centres supporting AI operations and "industrials seeking distributed clean energy solutions to achieve their strategic goals … Terrestrial Energy’s Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR) plant is uniquely positioned to meet this growing demand at a time when small and modular nuclear power plants, leveraging advanced reactor technologies, have come into the spotlight as high- performance and transformative supply solutions."
The IMSR is a so-called Gen IV reactor that uses molten salt as both fuel and coolant, with integrated components, which can supply heat directly to industrial facilities or use it to generate electrical power. It does this using conventional nuclear reactor fuel - so-called standard assay low-enriched uranium (LEU). The plants' thermal and electric power supply systems can be customised to meet specific site demand requirements, and can support distributed generation for energy-intensive industry.
Earlier this year, Terrestrial signed an agreement with Schneider Electric to collaborate on developing zero-carbon energy solutions for industrial facilities and large data centres based on the IMSR. More recently, it signed a memorandum of understanding with UK-based oil and gas company Viaro Energy to collaborate on the deployment of IMSR plant technology for a broad range of potential industrial applications, including powering data centres for AI.
"EnergySolutions has a portfolio of promising sites and deep expertise to support the regulatory actions necessary for site selection and deployment of IMSR plants," Terrestrial Energy CEO Simon Irish said. "We look forward to collaborating with EnergySolutions on siting activities and broadening our project consortium to other commercial parties. This includes engaging with entities interested in offtake agreements for clean, firm power and heat at gigawatt-scale, as well as fostering partnerships with state and federal governments."
Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions is known as a supplier of nuclear decommissioning/decontamination, waste processing and disposal services, and operates two licensed disposal sites, in Clive, Utah, and Barnwell County, South Carolina. In June 2023, alongside an announcement of additional capabilities in support of the life extension of existing US nuclear power plants, the construction of new reactors, the company also said it was in the early phases of exploring the use of EnergySolutions-owned former nuclear sites as potential locations for future nuclear power plants.
EnergySolutions owns the Kewaunee nuclear power plant in Wisconsin, which shut down in 2013, which it acquired from Dominion Energy in 2022 with the aim of decommissioning the single-unit plant. It is also currently decommissioning Three Mile Island unit 2 in Pennsylvania, which it owns through its TMI-2 Solutions subsidiary, and is decommissioning the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in southern California and Fort Calhoun in Nebraska. It has completed decommissioning work at the Zion plant in Illinois and the La Crosse boiling water reactor in Wisconsin.
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